COMPUTING RESEARCH NEWS Computing Research Association Uniting Industry, Academia and Government to Advance Computing Research and Change the World. FEBRUARY 2018 Vol. 30 / No. 2 CRN At-A-Glance Computing Researchers Make the Case for Intelligent Infrastructure at Congressional Briefing On a day when President Donald J. Trump was expected to use his State of the In This Issue Union address to unveil his administration’s plans for nationwide infrastructure 2 Computing Researchers Make the Case for investment, a panel representing computing researchers in academia and Intelligent Infrastructure at Congressional Briefing industry told a group of congressional staffers and other stakeholders that while 5 2018 CRA Conference at Snowbird Program Update those infrastructure needs are critical, it would be shortsighted to simply replicate 7 Michael Ernst and Catherine Putonti Receive the 2018 CRA-E Undergraduate Research Faculty more of what we have. Instead, they urged, now we have an opportunity to Mentoring Award invest in the research and make progress on the policies that would allow for an 9 Which Departments Most Often Nominate “intelligent infrastructure” that would provide a foundation for increased safety Students for the CRA Outstanding Undergraduate and resilience, improved efficiencies and civic services, and broader economic Researchers Award? opportunities and job growth. See page 2 for full article. 10 Expanding the Pipeline: CAHSI Broadens Hispanics’ Participation in Computing 15 Nearly Half of Graduate Students in Computing 2018 CRA Conference at Snowbird Programs Believe They Have Below Average Knowledge About How to Obtain Research Funding Program Update 16 Thank You Data Buddies! The program for the 2018 CRA Conference at Snowbird has recently been 18 Connecting Computing Research with National updated. A third plenary session will consist of a panel on “Diversity Priorities in Computing Leadership” chaired by Carla Brodley; current confirmed 19 Microsoft Research Podcast on Quantum Computing participants include Shinder Dhillon, Head of Global Diversity & Inclusion - 20 Board Members, Staff, Column Editor Engineering & Corporate Functions, Microsoft, Brian Reaves, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Dell, Inc., and Ayanna Howard, Chair, School of 21 Professional Opportunities Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. See page 5 for full article. CRA Board Elections in Progress Ballots have been distributed to all CRA department chairs and lab directors. Each will have one vote for each open slot on the board. Completed ballots are due February 28. Click here for the slate of nominees. cra.org/crn Computing Researchers Make the Case for Intelligent Infrastructure at Congressional Briefing By Peter Harsha, CRA Director of Government Affairs On a day when President Donald J. Trump was expected to use his State of the Union address to unveil his administration’s plans for nationwide infrastructure investment, a panel repre- senting computing researchers in academia and industry told a group of congressional staffers and other stakeholders that while those infrastructure needs are critical, it would be short- sighted to simply replicate more of what we have. Instead, they urged, now we have an opportunity to invest in the research and make progress on the policies that would allow for an “intelligent infrastructure” that would provide a foundation for From left to right: Dan Lopresti, Henning Schulzrinne, Matt increased safety and resilience, improved efficiencies and civic Wansley, Nadya Bliss, Elizabeth Mynatt participate in a congressional briefing on Intelligent Infrastructure Research. services, and broader economic opportunities and job growth. The panel — led by moderator Dan Lopresti, and barriers to successful deployments. comparable to the establishment of the Chair of the Department of Computer The briefing was sponsored by CRA, along national electrical grid in the 1930s, the Science at Lehigh University, along with with honorary co-hosts Rep. Lamar Smith interstate highway system in the 1950s, Henning Schulzrinne of Columbia (and (R-TX), Chair of the House Science, Space and the Internet in the 1960s. Indeed, former CTO of the Federal Communication and Technology Committee, and Rep. intelligent infrastructure can be viewed Commission); Matt Wansley, General Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Ranking as the convergence of these three very Counsel for nuTonomy, a startup focused Member of the House Science, Space and powerful ideas.” on autonomous vehicle technologies; Technology Committee. Nadya Bliss, the Director of the Global Intelligent infrastructure is the deep Security Institute at Arizona State; and embedding of sensing, computing, Beth Mynatt, Director of the Institute for and communications capabilities into People and Technology at Georgia Tech — traditional urban and rural physical highlighted the promise of the technologies infrastructures such as roads, buildings, that will enable more intelligent bridges, pipelines, water and electric infrastructures, but also noted critical gaps distribution systems for the purpose of increasing efficiency, resiliency, and safety. Intelligent infrastructure has a wide range of applications, including transportation, Matt Wansley, of the company nuTonomy, addressed energy management, public safety and issues of robustness and interoperability. security, disaster response, agriculture, and health. But the panel pointed out a rich set of research problems that require solving “The scope of the transformation we to truly realize the benefits of intelligent are facing is truly unprecedented,” infrastructures along four foundational Lopresti noted. “It’s hard to find proper Henning Schulzrinne, of Columbia areas. Schulzrinne discussed the need for comparisons, but intelligent infrastructure University, addresses the attendees of resiliency and adaptability in these sorts is likely to have an impact on our society the Capitol Hill briefing. of systems, the ability of the infrastructure 2 cra.org/crn February 2018 Congressional Briefing (continued) enable autonomous cars to pull information stand to make profound contributions to from the existing infrastructure — the the quality of life in these communities.” color of the traffic signal, the state of In addition to forward looking data platforms traffic ahead, the extent of construction and policies to spur open innovation, Mynatt zones on the route — but also push it also discussed two other gaps that stand back into the infrastructure for the benefit to prevent communities from reaping of all users. “Intelligent infrastructure the economic rewards of infrastructure is a textbook example of a positive investments: productive access to externality,” he said. But getting there will broadband capabilities and innovating require that the companies developing systems for effective training and job autonomous vehicles, and the consumers creation. She noted that broadband access Nadya Bliss, of Arizona State University, who ride in them, must be able to rely addressed issues of security and in rural communities is often constrained by on the infrastructure — and that will trustworthiness. last mile problems, which might be met by require more fundamental work in the to cope with extreme or unexpected combining wired and wireless connectivity. understanding how to build in robustness circumstances — for example, when Similarly, meeting the needs of rural and interoperability in these system. This wireless communications are subject to agriculture might require “flipping the cloud”, is work that’s perhaps best suited to natural disasters on the scope of Hurricane recognizing that agricultural users are not university-led research fueled by Federal Maria that devastated Puerto Rico. He simply consumers of content, but potentially investment, he noted, as there are not noted the lessons we are learning from generate large volumes of data about their sufficient market incentives for large Maria — which knocked out 95 percent of own farms, which might best be addressed corporations to make such V2I networks all cell sites and many telephone switches by having more computation available to open and usable widely. — point to the need for more resilient them on the “edges” of the internet nearest communications infrastructures. “Research This need for access and usability was them, rather than pushed back up to some is needed to develop and prototype novel amplified by Mynatt, who noted that central cloud through a constrained pipe. networking architectures that support ensuring the availability of open and These challenges also highlight the need to a minimal level of communications, for curated data produced by these systems have a workforce trained to work with (and example, using pre-deployed mesh and is key to communities benefitting from on) these new infrastructures. opportunistic solar-powered store-and- them (and not just industry). “Too often forward networks, for both first responders the data collected by these systems, and the public. Self-configuring ‘autonomic’ whether it’s from smart trashcans that networks can recover capabilities without know they are full, to traffic data at the need for experts.” intersections, is held by that company,” she said. “While municipalities may gain Wansley added an industry perspective specific capabilities, such as knowing to the discussion, noting the importance when to empty the trash, they lose the of solving problems of robustness opportunities to use the data in new and